Road Rocks Ontario

The province of Ontario contains many sites of outstanding geological importance. Many are internationally well known and attract visitors from around the globe. Others no less important remain hidden in plain sight. During the last 3 billion years Ontario has been witness to giant tectonic collisions as North America collided in turn with South America and Africa creating huge mountains now long gone. Many of Ontario's northern rocks originated as magma on ancient ocean floors long before life flourished. The province has been dented by fiery meteorites, drifted across the equator, been flooded by tropical seas rich in marine life and scraped bare by ice sheets. Ontario's rich geologic history is illustrated here by short descriptions of more than 200 field sites ranging from Timmins in the north to Windsor in the south. These include the Sleeping Giant near Thunder Bay; Agawa Canyon; the Sudbury meteorite crater; Niagara Escarpment; the Falls and Gorge; numerous caves, the mineral-rich Bancroft area; and the high lakeshore cliffs at Scarborough Bluffs. Some sites are sacred to First Nations and are associated with spectacular rock art. Also included are sites from adjacent parts of Quebec such as the Monteregian Hills near Montreal, the Gatineau Hills at Ottawa and a few sites in New York State, all of which add to the story of the geological evolution of Ontario and all of which are all within easy driving distance from Ontario. Each site features a short summary of its significance and is depicted on a map with GPS coordinates. Take a drive through our geology and take a few moments to think of Ontario's long and varied history.

In its long and rocky past, the place we call Ontario has traveled across the equator, been peppered and pockmarked by meteorites, seen the rise and decline of towering mountains, and gave rise to some very strange and now extinct organisms. In fact, what seems like a changeless landscape was once covered by vast seas and huge, continent-wide ice sheets which measured 2 kilometres thick, leaving in their wake, the Great Lakes. Ontario Rocks tells this fascinating 3 billion year long story of Ontario's geological evolution, from its beginnings as part of an early landmass called Arctica, its incorporation into enormous supercontinents, through to the repeated ice ages and abrupt climatic changes of the last few thousand years. Merging Canadian geology with global evolution, this highly illustrated survey also touches on the development of Ontario's mining and oil industries, and the commercial use of rocks as building material. Ontario Rocks concludes with an exploration of the "artificial" urban landscape, and how geologists use their knowledge to safeguard groundwater and rivers, dispose of wastes and understand the hazards posed by earthquakes and erosion. Ontario Rocks is a highly accessible sourcebook, perfect for students and all those intrigued by the history and formation of the land under us.

Being a Canadian carries with it a tangible sense of living on the edge of a vast barren interior. Only named as such in 1883, the Canadian Shield is an empty immensity of lakes, bogs, rivers, forest and protruding ribs of hard Precambrian crystalline rock that covers more than half of the total land area of Canada. This book traces the geologic evolution of the Shield, its first tentative exploration by humans starting 11,000 years ago as the last great ice sheets withdrew, its changing economic fortunes as Europeans penetrated its remote rocky vastnesses for furs and metals, and its transformation in the twentieth century into a national icon to Canadians. Regarded as 'barren' and of no value, much of the Shield was given away in 1670 to a single London-based fur trading company, the Hudson Bay Company, who jealously guarded its northern domain until 1867. This two hundred year long monopoly created a virtual government over a huge piece of North America. Without the HBC, much of it would have passed into American hands and there would have been no 'Canadian' Shield or country called Canada. As a nation, we are indebted to hard rock.

This is the story of how the Canadian landmass evolved -- piece by piece -- from a long-lost continent some four billion years ago into one of the most spectacular and geologically significant areas on Earth.

We have prepared a comprehensive field guide, directed toward the general geologist and students, which covers all aspects of the bedrock geology and mineral deposits of the Sudbury area.

The Grenville Province, covering much of upstate New York, southeastern Ontario, and southern Québec, has been the source of many amazing mineral specimens. Its crystalline rocks are more than a billion years old, and unlike most mineralogical heritage sites, new discoveries are the rule rather than the exception.The province also contains deposits of commercially important minerals such as iron, zinc, talc, garnet, apatite, and mica. More than 400 photographs highlight specimens from the world-renowned collections of the Canadian Museum of Nature, the New York State Museum, and selected private collections. This pleasurable journey includes sections devoted to colorful gemstones and fluorescent minerals, and explains the mineralogical, geological, and historical significance of these minerals.